Getting ready to install!

[glenlloyd]

Finally, the outside painting / storm install project is done, time to move on to other more important things, like getting the chimney liner installed.

But before I can do that I have to finish 'preparing' my firebox. The first part of that was to remove the last of the original damper assembly, shown here:

The course of bricks above the damper were built on top of it and I was afraid that without the damper there could eventually be a collapse so I added this steel plate spanning the distance with cut fire bricks at each end. I still need to goop some fireplace cement in there but it is in tight. Cement will be added tomorrow.

Here's a shot of the clean firebox, the problem I ran into was that to push the insert in as far as I wanted I needed to eradicate some of the existing firebrick, so today I spent a couple hours filling the house with dust and dirt leaving me with the results in the second photo.

I opted to only cut away as much of the fire brick as I needed rather than take it apart and rebuild it larger, which I could have done, but that would have delayed the project further. Also, I could have pulled and replaced the fire brick with cast panels which I suppose might have been pretty easy.....and far less dusty. BTW, I didn't tarp the fireplace when I did the cutting....which made a huge mess!

At least now I can say that I'm ready to install the liner, and the expanded flashing base cover will be done tomorrow morning. We have a few good days of weather left here but not many. I think that by Thursday / Friday we're back down into the 50's and I would like to have this fired up by then.

steve

 

[ScotO]

I bet the mrs. liked all that dust....lol....I made the same mistake years ago by not taping plastic up around a door of the baby's room when I was gutting it.....it was in the winter and needless to say the fact that the furnace kicked on and off all day while I was carefully gutting that room did not help me any....she almost killed me!...good luck on yer project keep us posted.....

 

[glenlloyd]

I bet the mrs. liked all that dust....lol....I made the same mistake years ago by not taping plastic up around a door of the baby's room when I was gutting it.....it was in the winter and needless to say the fact that the furnace kicked on and off all day while I was carefully gutting that room did not help me any....she almost killed me!...good luck on yer project keep us posted.....

No 'mrs.' in this house to worry about, but there is a light coating of dust all over everything...and I mean everything. I should have put up plastic but I didn't imagine that it would create so much of a mess, until I realized that it was going to take a lot of grinding to get the spaces cut out properly.

At any rate it's done and I'll live with the consequences but it's more of a mess than I realized it would be.

If it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll get the liner installed and move the stove from the small garage into the house....finally!

steve

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

I love those stamped bricks. Did you paint? Looks ready to go. How big is that avalon?

 

[glenlloyd]

I love those stamped bricks. Did you paint? Looks ready to go. How big is that avalon?

Yeah, the 'LaClede' bricks are pretty neat. whoever laid them up didn't bother to make sure the names were all right side up. Some even have the stamping facing the rear, but I guess it doesn't matter all that much.

I never painted the fire box but someone did, several times. It looks like the first coat was a grey, followed by a couple coats of ivory. Just before I install the insert I'll go over it all with bbq black on everything inside the fire box.

I'm not happy about all the painting, especially the brick facing inside the house. There's so many coats that it's unlikely that it will ever come off completely, and because they're scratch face I can't imagine that it will come off easily, which is too bad, the mortar is actually purple.

The cutting had to be done to make room for Avalon's biggest, the Olympic (3.1 cu ft firebox), which requires 29 3/8" width at the rear. After modification I have 30" of clearance at the rear, so it all should be good!

steve

 

[begreen]

Congratulations on your progress. Rather than covering the paint with BBQ black, I would strip the paint off completely. We get occasional complaints here about odd smells coming when they burn. Trapping a low temp paint may just cause problems if it outgases when it's heated. I would just get rid of it.

 

[glenlloyd]

Congratulations on your progress. Rather than covering the paint with BBQ black, I would strip the paint off completely. We get occasional complaints here about odd smells coming when they burn. Trapping a low temp paint may just cause problems if it outgases when it's heated. I would just get rid of it.

great, more paint stripping, just when I thought I was done with the heatgun for the season!

 

[begreen]

It's a one time task, but better to do it now than in the middle of winter when everyone starts complaining.

 

[glenlloyd]

It's a one time task, but better to do it now than in the middle of winter when everyone starts complaining.

Yeah, well I'm the only one who would do any complaining but I do see your point. Problem with removing it is that it'll never all come off unless it's ground off, I think the bricks are reasonably porous enough that heat will only allow moderate removal. If I use the grinder it'll just mean more dust....and it'll be lead dust too.

steve

 

[begreen]

I think you'd be ok if you got the majority off. But It's your call if you want to try it with the paint in place.

 

[glenlloyd]

I think you'd be ok if you got the majority off. But It's your call if you want to try it with the paint in place.

I'll put in a few hours tomorrow removing what I can, the rest will just have to live under the bbq paint, but only because your Bertrand Russell quote is so good!

steve

 

[Village Idiot]

great, more paint stripping, just when I thought I was done with the heatgun for the season!

When I was younger, we striped paint from some brick and used something called "Peel Away". I just checked and it is still being manufactured by Dumond . IIRC it worked pretty well. You paint the goop on and lay some paper over it and let it do its work. Then you peel the paper back and the paint comes with it. It was pretty cool and did a decent job on the rough surface of the bricks. I would also think that this method would also help mitigate some of the issues with removing lead paint.

 

[Benchwrench]

great, more paint stripping, just when I thought I was done with the heatgun for the season!

I use this particular diamond cup wheel, it comes in handy at times. One if its applications is stripping paint.
http://www.us.hilti.com/holus/page/module/product/prca_rangedetail.jsf?lang=en&nodeId=-235661

Also if you run a shop-vac hose in the fireplace while you work, it'll help with dust control.

 

[glenlloyd]

great, more paint stripping, just when I thought I was done with the heatgun for the season!

When I was younger, we striped paint from some brick and used something called "Peel Away". I just checked and it is still being manufactured by Dumond . IIRC it worked pretty well. You paint the goop on and lay some paper over it and let it do its work. Then you peel the paper back and the paint comes with it. It was pretty cool and did a decent job on the rough surface of the bricks. I would also think that this method would also help mitigate some of the issues with removing lead paint.

I'm familiar with the product and I have been tempted to try it but in this instance the bricks have so many coats of paint that I doubt even Peel Away would remove it complete. A neighbor friend of mine used it on smooth bricks where an enclosed porch had once been and it required three applications of the product to remove it all. I think it would take a lot more applications than that to remove the paint from my bricks. In the end I'll probably try it but I'm not looking forward to it.

Inside the firebox I'm just going to use the heat gun since that works fast. I need to get finished in there so I can install the liner.

thanks

steve

 

[thewoodlands]

[quote author="glenlloyd" date="1319436050"]Finally, the outside painting / storm install project is done, time to move on to other more important things, like getting the chimney liner installed.

But before I can do that I have to finish 'preparing' my firebox. The first part of that was to remove the last of the original damper assembly, shown here:

Steve it looks great, here is a link to the Laclede Brick Company.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/dogtown/history/laclede-brick.html


zap

 

[glenlloyd]

Finally, the outside painting / storm install project is done, time to move on to other more important things, like getting the chimney liner installed.

But before I can do that I have to finish 'preparing' my firebox. The first part of that was to remove the last of the original damper assembly, shown here:

Steve it looks great, here is a link to the Laclede Brick Company.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/dogtown/history/laclede-brick.html


zap

Thanks for the pointer on the laclede brick history, have seen them before but didn't know much about them.

Here's an updated photo of the firebrick paint removed....heat gun was a waste of time, grinder was a lot more messy but was quicker and more thorough. This is as far as it goes, if there's any outgassing I'll have to live with it, I'm not even getting involved in trying to remove the paint from the chimney facing at this point, I'm running out of time...liner needs to go in today, and it looks like I'm on my own for that.

The paint on this fireplace is quite old, probably 40yo now, it's been on there for over 20 years at any rate, I've owned it that long. We'll see what happens.

steve

 

[REM505]

Looks really nice now, probably will smell a whole lot less once you fire it up too!

 

[ScotO]

It's a one time task, but better to do it now than in the middle of winter when everyone starts complaining.

Yeah, well I'm the only one who would do any complaining but I do see your point. Problem with removing it is that it'll never all come off unless it's ground off, I think the bricks are reasonably porous enough that heat will only allow moderate removal. If I use the grinder it'll just mean more dust....and it'll be lead dust too.

steve

use a paint stripper, brush it on, let it sit a while, use a scraper and wire brush........a few hours of using that stuff + a few beers and you'll be on cloud nine.....but the paint will be off and it will look much better.....